Governor



July 29, 1941- H. G. ADLER I 2,250,983

GOVERNOR' Filed May e, 1940 s sheets-sheet 2 F IG.7.

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ATTORNE 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 FIG.5.

INVEN TOR.

GOVERNOR H. G. ADLER Filed May 6, 1940 Aneullm u veuEToFmuA Leve so July 29, 1941.

ATTORNE Patented July'zs, 1941 UNITED STATE S PATENT OFFICE GOVERNOR Herman G. Adler, Detroit, Mich., assignor to Novi Equipment Company, Novi, Mich., a corporation of Michigan Application May 6, 1940, Serial No. 333,655

It is more specically an object of the present;

invention to provide a novel arrangement of balancing means for balancing the centrifugal force developed by the governor.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a governor in which friction is reduced to a minimum and in which the sensitivity of response is controlled by friction means.

It is a further object of the invention to provide novel friction applying means, which also I serve the function of an oil seal.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a governor having a novel relationship between the adjusting lever and the control lever, and a tensioning means interconnecting these levers.

It is a furtherobject of the invention to provide a governor employing chromium plated, unpolished balls.

It is a further object of'the present invention vto provide a governor employing balls between a pair of rotatably mounted plates, in which lthe balls are provided with chromium plated surfaces having characteristics such that the friction be- 1 tween the balls and the plates will insure rotation of the plates during operation of the governor.

Other objects of the invention will be appar-- priate supporting structure. The housing I0 is open at one end and is adapted to be closed by a closure plate I3, appropriately secured in place at the open end of the housing. The closure plate I3 is provided with bearings lIII, herein indicated as ball bearings, adapted to support a drive shaft I5. The drive shaft I 5 has keyed or otherwise secured thereto a driving gear IB adapted to be driven from an appropriate memberassociated with the engine to be governed.

A bushing I'I surrounds the shaft I 5 within/the inner race of the bearing I 4, and supports an annular -plate I8 for free rotation on the shaft I5. A second cooperating plate I9 is also carried` by the shaft I5 for free rotation and axial movement, and-is supported thereon by means of an axially movable bushing 2'0. A thrust collar 2l having a angeZI' is provided, and ball bearing elements 22 are received between the flange 2| and the plate I9. Both the flange 2l' and the plate I9 are provided with shallow grooves for receiving and retaining the balls 22 in position, thus forming a race for the balls.

The plate I9 is indicated as dished in a manner to.provide a space between the'plates I8 and I9,

which is' outwardlyl constricted for a purpose which will presently appear.

Keyed or otherwise secured to the shaft I is a driver 30 having generally radial ball receiving slots indicated at 3|. I have indicated a supi porting sleeve 32 keyed as indicated at 33 to the Figure 3 is an end elevation of the governor with parts in section;

Figure 4 is a 'diagram indicating the geometry of the dual fulcrum spring employed;

Figi'ire 5 is a chart illustrating the torque developed by the dual fulcrum spring;

Figure 6 is a detail elevation of the novel driver; and

Figure 'l is a side elevation of the driver shown in Figure 6.

The governor comprising the present invention housing is bolted or otherwise secured to appro- 605mg apertured boss 42.

shaft I5 for supporting the driver 30. Received within `the slots 3l and between the plates I8 and I9 are a plurality of balls 34 which, as will be evident, will be driven in rotation by rotation of the shaft l5.

l Rotation of the shaft I5 and corresponding rotation of the balls 34, urges the balls outwardly due to the centrifugal force developed. Outward movement of the balls moves the axially movable plate I9 and the associated thrust collar 2l to the left, as seen in Figure 2. This motion is resisted by suitable balancing mechanism, which will now be described in detail.

The housing I0 is provided interiorly with a recess lll for receiving one end of a rotatably mounted shaft 4I, the shaft extending exteriorly of the casing I0 through an outwardly extend- Keyed or otherwise secured to the shaft 4I, as indicated at t3, is a 4yoke 'element l having depending arms d5 adapted to engage the flange 2l' on the thrust collar. Secured to the externally projecting end of lthe vshaft 4I is a. control arm 50, having adjacent its "end a ball element 5I adapted to be the throttle (not shown). In Figure 3 I have indicated the link 52 as provided with a hollow sheet met-al member 58 shaped to partly embrace the ball element 5I, and having a spring-pressed plunger 54 therein, urged by a spring 55 -to retain the link 52 connected to the ball 5I.

The boss 42 has a cylindrically ilnished surface on which is mounted, coaxially with the shaft 4I, an adjusting lever 80. Tension means 4.curve in the low torque range.

the presen-t construction, that is, resilient means are provided interconnecting-the levers 50 and 60, and for this purpose the lever 50 is provided adjacent its free end with a laterally extending arm 56, having an eye '51 therein for the reception of a loop ofa coil tension spring 58. The lever 80 is provided wit-h a projecting stud 6| on which is pivoted a rigidlink element 62, 'having an eye 63 for the reception of the opposite end of the coil spring 58. Spring 58 and link 62 together make up a spring connection between levers 50 and 80.

The adjusting lever 50 is provided at its free end with a ball, similar in all respects .to the ball 5i carried by the lever 50, previously described. Suitable m-anual adjusting means (not shown) are adapted to be connected to the ball connected to a link 52, which in turn is connected to means for controlling the position of closely -to the actual governor curve in the high torque range, but if this were done the curve would deviate widely from the actual governor By employing comprising the tension spring and pivoted link, together with an abutment to prevent swinging movement of the pivot link upon attainment of a predetermined angularity between .the levers, the curve shown in full line and designated dual fulcrum curve is obtained. 'As will be evident, thi-s curve follows closely the actual governor curve throughout the entire range, with the result that close regulation may be obtained throughout an exceedingly wide 'speed range.

In Figure 4 I have illustrated the geometry in- I volved in what I term the dual fulcrum con- 64A for swinging the adjusting arm 50 into predetermined position and for retaining it in this position. As will be appreciated, adjustment of the arm B0 varies the tension and the instantaneous effectiveness ofthe torque arm of the spring 58 with respect tol the control lever 50. and thereby serves as a speed control setting for the governor.

The arms 50 and 60 are axially spaced from each other, but means are provided on one of the 'arms which is engageable with the other arm, whereby upon swinging of the adjusting arm 60 to limiting position in one direction the control arm 50 will be simultaneously positively moved to a position corresponding to idle position of the throttle. This means takes the form of a projection 85 extending from the arm 80 into the plane of movement of the arm 50 and adapted to engage the arm 50 Vwhen the angulari-ty between the arms is reduced to a predetermined lamount. The projection 55 serves another important function, as will now be described. As indicated in Figure 1, the projection 65 serves also as an abutment for the rigid link 52, and is adapted when the angularity between the arms 50 and 60 increases to a predetermined amount, to prevent further swinging of the link 52 about the stud 8i.- This will modify the effectiveness o'f the spring in a manner which will now be pointed out. V

As stated atv the outset, the present governor is designed to operate through an` extraordinarily wide speed range, and accordingly the means for balancing the torque developed by the centrifugal means must correspond to the developed torque throughout a wide range. As indicated in Figure 5, the governor of the type illustrated may have an actual 'governor curve, as indicated by dotted lines in this gure. If thelink 52`and associated cooperating abutment-55 were omitted so that the spring had a single fulcrum, the.

curve drawn with the broken line and designated single fulcrum curve" would be obtained. As is apparent, this curve deviates sharply from the actual governor curve, particularly in the high torque range. It wouldof course, be possible to modify the springcharacteristics and de.-

sign so as to cause this curve to correspond struction, and in this figure the axis of the shaft .4i is designated'at O; the .axisof the stud 6I is designated M; the eye 63 in the link 52 is designated at N; and the eye 51 of the arm 58 is designated P. At Q I have indicated the normal or untensioned length of the spring 58 so that the distance between the curves P and Q indi cates the elongation of the spring 58.

The diagram in Figure-1 is graduated in degrees from zero to 90, and a zero degree condiw tion exists when the points O, `M, N and P an aligned. In this condition, as will be obvious the spring is stretched by an amount measured by the distance between the curves Q and P at the zero point, but no torque is exerted for the reason that the force of the spring is aligned with the Vpivot center O. In this figure itis assumed that the abutment 65 is so positioned that it engages the link 62 when the arms 50 and 60 have been separated by an angle of 40. Therefore, throughout the rst 40 of relative angular movement between the arms 50 and '80 the tension means, including the spring 58 and link 62, operate in the usual manner, and the torque developed may be computed if the spring rate is known. Thus, for example, when thev angular separation between the arms is 10, the elongation ofthe spring may be determined by the separation between the curves Q and P at that point, and the effective torque arm developed is indicated at A, the norm'al distance between the fulcrum center O and the line of action of the spring.

Throughout the first 40 of relative angular movement the torque increases in the usual malrv ner. there being a continuous increase in elongation in the spring and a continuous increase in the effective-lever arm of the spring. As soon as the link 52 engages the abutment 55.oonditions are changed, and further separation oi' the levers results in a more rapidly increasing torque. 'I'his will be apparent from Figure 4 in which it will be observed that elongation of the spring as measured between the curves N and P will increase more rapidly, due to the fact that the point N is no longer permitted to swing abouty 'the point M as the center. In addition the lever arm A will increase much more rapidly, due to' the fact that the line of action of the spring now passes through a iixed point at 'the upper end of the curve N.

In order that this developed torque curve may f represents the elongation of the spring; and' RAf represents the torque where R is the assumed or selected spring rate. As will be apparent, this torque, as indicated in the column The depending arms 45 of they yoke 44, which engage the flange 2I'of the thrust coll-ar 2 I, retain the collar 2l against rotation on the bushing 20. As previously stated, the plates I8- and I9 are mounted for free rotation on'the shaft I5, and during normal operationathey will rotate at the same speed as the balls 34. This is a desirable condition. Since the flange 2l' does not rotate, even though balls 22 are provided intermediate this flange and the plate I9, in some cases it is found that the plate I9 does not rotate.

This gives rise to unsatisfactory operating conditions and causes considerable noise in the governor. It is accordingly desirable to insure tha-t during normal operation of the -governor the plate I9 will rotate.

I have found that this aim can be attained by employing balls having a specific characteristic. Best resul-ts are obtained when these balls are plated with chromium and are then left in an unpolished condition. The balls are not, of course, rough, but on the other hand they do not have the smoothness which would follow a polishing operation subsequent to the plating operation.

The essential consideration is-that -the surface characteristics of the balls 34 must be such t t the torque exerted through friction of the b s 34 on the plate I9 shall be greatersthan the torque exerted through friction of the balls 22 on the plate I9. Friction between the sleeve' of the thrust collar 2| and bushing 20 is negligible by reason of a loose fit -between these parts.

by chromium plating the balls 34, i-t is found that this operation further improves the/governor operation and increases its life. It has been impossible, tocontrol the initial surfacechar-` Exteriorly of the boss 42 I provide a friction and sealing plate 'Il which is secured against rotation to the shaft 4I. The plate 1I may'for example be pressed to'the shaft 4I for rotation therewith. The end surface of the boss 42 against which the plates abut,..may be finished smoothly, and the plate Il may be hardened and ground. By selecting a spring 'I0 of suflicient strength, any desired amount' of friction Within reasonable limits may be introduced.

The' governor as a whole is designed so as to reduce friction of the parts to a minimum, with the result that the frictionintroduced by the friction plate 'Il may be substantially all of the friction present in the device. As a result of this,

it ispossible to control within accurate limitsmthe over-all friction encountered in the operatioifof the device'. tion so as to slow the response of the governor under certain operating conditions. For example,

when the governor is applied to a tractor, and

where the tractor is pulling a farming imple-l ment, such for example as a disk, across a plowed field, there is .a rapid succession of impulses. As a result, the governor in many cases will be found to cause undesirable surges in the' mo'tor in synchronism with the impulses applied. Under these circumstances, by providing a predetermined almount of frictional resistance to response, the response may be delayed so that these lundesirable surges are avoided. The friction thus provided will not, of course, substantially affect the speed range ofthe governor, and its effect on the closeness of regulation of the zovernor is unimportant in the use of the governor on a farm tractor.

Instead of employing a hardened and ground plate 1I, it m-ayin some instances be preferable to provide a plate of non-metallic material, such for example as a fibrous material. In either case it is found that where this frictional resista-nce' is introduced in the manner specified, it

is unnecessary to supplya. separate oil seal for preventing leakage of oil from the interior of the 5u In addition to providing .the requisite friction 5 t trated -a modified formof driver' 80, correspondacteristics of the balls as desired. Furthermore,

where the balls'are not chromium plated and where the initial Asurf-ace characteristics are such these characteristics are not"`substantially ymodi-i fied by use in the governor and thus the desired operating characteristics are present throughout the lifeof the governor.

Referring now to'Figure 4I and abutting against the yoke 44. The yoke 44 is keyed tothe shaft 4I, as previously des, 1 have illustrated. a compression vspring 10 surrounding the shaft as toproduce' the desiredr operating charactergovernor varound the shaft 4 I. The friction plate is 'found to perform this oil sealing functionf'in an entirely satisfactory manne Referring now to Figures 6 and'?, I have illusinggenerally to driver 30 shown in Figure 2.

inclined slots '8| for the reception of balls 34,

shown in this gure in dotted lines. Driver is secured Jto sleeve 32 for rotation with drive Shaftl l5. i

The slots -8I are preferably curved so as to form equal angles with radial lines, or in 'other' the slots do not affect the operation. During acceleration or deceleration, however, theinclination ofl the slots affectsthe sensitivity of the governor.` -Thus for example with the slots in-y clin'ed rearwardly fromthe direction of rotation' .asshownbylthe arrow in Figure 6, the inclination of the slotsaids outward movement of the balls during acceleration, and aids inward movethe shaft 4I to the left as seen in Figure 3.

It is desirable to introduce fric?` l of the slots for the purpose set forth is kept substantialiy constant for all positions of the lo balls,

It is further within the scope of the invention to provide the slots so as to make dieren-t angles with radial lines so as to aiiect the sensitivity in a predetermined manner for different positions of theballs between balls-in and balls-out position. f

While I have ill-ustrated 'and described a specific embodiment of my governor, it will be apparent that this has been done solely to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, the scope of which is indicated by'the appended', claims What I claim as my invention is:

1. A wide range governor comprising centrifugal means, spring balancing'means including a lever movable by said centrifugal means, a tension spring opposing movement of said lever, a

link connected to one end of saidspring, and

an abutment engageable during swinging of said lever by said link. A

2. A wide range governor comprising centrifugal means, spring balancing means including a lever movable by said centrifugal means, an adjusting lever, resilient means connecting said levers and including a tension spring connected to one of said levers and a link pivotally connected to the other lever, an abutment carried by said other lever and engageable by said link during relative swinging movement of said levers.

3. In a governor, a control lever pivoted for swinging movement, centrifugal means for swinging said control lever, an adjusting lever pivoted coaxially with said control lever, resilient means connecting said levers and adapted to oppose swinging of said control lever by said centrifugal means, said resilient means comprising a tension i spring and la link pivotedto one of said levers,

and an abutment carried by said one lever adapted to engage said link during relative swinging movement of said levers to vary the effectiveness of said resilient means.

4. In a g-overnor, a control lever pivoted for levers, and an abutment carried by said one lever adapted -to engage said link duringV relative swinging movement of said levers to vary the effectiveness of said resilient means, said abutment being positioned so as t-o increase the effectiveness of 65 said resilient means at and beyondva definite spring torque.

A5. A governor vcomprising a casing. a s haft'extending through an opening ina wall of said 'c asrng, centrifugal means on said casing operable to rotate said shaft, and friction means opposing rotation of said shaft, said friction means comprising a friction Washer secured to said shaft, and resilient means urging said washer into contact with said casing.

2,250,983 ment of the balls, during deceleration. As will be 6. A governor comprising ay casing, a shaft extending through an opening in a wall of said casing, centrifugal means on said casing operable to rotate .said'shaft, andfriction means opposing rotation of said shaft, said friction means comprising a friction VWasher secured to said shaft, and resilient means urging said washer into contact with said casing, said washer serving as an oil-seal for said opening. Y

7. A governor comprising a casing, a shaft extending through an opening in a Wall of said casing, centrifugal means on said casing operable to rotate said shaft, and friction means opposing rotation of said shaft, said friction means comprising a frictionwasher secured to said shaft externally of said casing, and resilient means urging said washer into contact with said casmg.

8. -In agovernor of the type described, a manual adjusting lever and a control lever pivoted concentrically, centrifugal means acting to effect a swinging movement of said control lever, tension means interconnecting said levers and opposing 4said swinging movement of said control lever Iby said. centrifugal means, said tension means connected to said con-trol lever remote from its pivot yaxis and connected to said adjusting lever relatively closer to said pivot axis.

9. In a governor of the type described, a manual adjusting lever and a. control lever pivoted concentrically, centrifugal means acting to effect a swinging movement of said control lever, tension means interconnecting said levers and opposing said swinging movement of said control lever by said centrifugal means, said tension means connected to said-control lever remote from its pivot axis and connected to said adswinging movement, centrifugal means for swinging said control lever, an adjusting lever pivoted sion spring and a link pivoted to one Aof said justing lever relatively closer to said pivot axis, said tension means -comprising a tension spring, and a link, said link 4being pivoted to said adjusting lever', and an abutment on said adjusting lever adapted to prevent swinging of said link on said adjusting lever when the angle between said levers is increased to a predetermined maximum,

10. In a governor of the type described, amanual adjusting lever and a control lever pivoted concentrically, centrifugal means acting to effect al swinging movement of sai-d control leven tension means interconnecting said levers and opposing said swinging movement of said control lever by said' centrifugal means, said tension means connected to said control lever remote from its pivot axis and connected -to said adjusting lever lrelatively closer to said pivot axis, said tension means comprising a tension spring, and a link, said link being pivoted to said yadjusting lever, and an abutment on said adjusting lever adapted to prevent swinging of said link on said adjustingflever when the angle between said levers is increased to a predetermined maximum, said abutment extending into lthe plane of motion of said control' lever whereby said adjusting lever may engage and positively move said control-lever to idle position.

151. A wide range governor comprising centrifugal means, spring balancing means for s aid centrifugal means including a lever movable by said centrifugal means, a tension spring connection opposing movement of said lever yby said centrifugal means, and an abutment engageable -by said spring connection intermediate its ends upon means, said spring connection and abutment being constructed and arranged -to cause theA ovement of said lever by said centrifugal y Y torque exerted by said spring connection to increase at afaster rate upon further movement f sai-d lever by said centrifugal means.

12. A wide range governor comprising centrifugal means, spring balancing means for said centrifugal means including a lever movable by said centrifugal means, a tension spring connected at one end to said lever, the-opposite end of said spring being swingable in a circular arc about an axis eccentric to the pivot axis of said lever and effective during low speed operation to provide a variable torque by simultaneous changes in spring tension and torque arm, and means effective in the high speed range to retain said opposite end of said spring stationary.

13.. A governor comprising a casing, a drive shaf-t therein, centrifugal mean-s driven by said shaft, a control lever operable by said centrifugal means and spring means opposing movement of said lever by said centrifugal means, antifriction means for reducing the friction of said centrifugal means, and separate friction means opposing movement of said lever, whereby overall sensitivity -of said governor may be substantially determined by determining the effectiveness of said separate friction means.

HERMAN G. ADLER. 

